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By Jeremy Duda,May 28, 2009
Arizona Capitol Times
jeremy.duda@azcapitoltimes.com
Heredia will take the helm of the Arizona Democratic Party after a period of disappointment and discord in the party's ranks. But he's looking beyond all that and is planning to build on Democrats' 2008 election successes in the Arizona Corporation Commission and congressional races, beginning with having "a good field team ready for 2010."
Party Chairman Don Bivens announced the appointment May 27. Heredia, a native Arizonan, replaces Maria Weeg, who resigned in February after two years with the party.
Democrats lost legislative seats in the 2008 election, despite raising significantly more money than their Republican counterparts, then experienced a leadership shakeup when Bivens was ousted as chairman, only to be reinstated when his successor resigned after just two weeks.
Heredia praised the party's staff, which he said has been persistent and effective despite the instability at the top, and said he wants to continue the progress that has been made. Among his first goals, he said, is to put a field team in place for the 2010 election cycle as early as possible.
"The wheels of the party have kept on running, so (my goal is) just try to not slow down the traction that we have," Heredia said. "We need to kick it up a notch so we can have the resources to put a good field team ready for 2010."
Prior to serving as public affairs chief for Union Pacific Railroad, Heredia served as a senior aide to Rep. Raul Grijalva. He has also worked as director of college services for Western Arizona College and as a neighborhood planner for the City of Yuma. He was elected to the Somerton Elementary School District Governing Board in Yuma in 2000, serving for eight years, including three as board president.
He has served as a state and county Democratic Party officer, and has led a number of campaign efforts, with a focus on door-to-door voter contact and voter registration drives. Heredia was named as the party's Young Democrat of the Year in 2005.
"Luis Heredia brings a fresh perspective and a frontline understanding of Arizona politics. He is a talented, dynamic leader with direct campaign experience in local and statewide elections. He is broadly respected and trusted within the state party, and he knows Arizona inside and out," Bivens stated in a press release.
In planning for 2010, Heredia said he wants to build on Democratic successes from 2008, when the party won two Corporation Commission seats and gained a majority in Arizona's congressional delegation. The election "was not a complete loss," he said, but at the legislative level "we just couldn't react fast enough to the messages that were important."
Heredia said the successes Democrats had in legislative races were largely in districts where it was engaged in aggressive congressional races, such as the election of Rep. Eric Meyer in the same district where Bob Lord mounted a spirited campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, or the retention of Nancy Young Wright's seat in U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' district.
"Those were Democratic gains that I think were untold success stories, but we've just got to get smarter at translating that success onto our legislative races," he said.
Heredia also said he plans to build on voter registration efforts and aims to have a Democratic majority among registered voters by 2011.
"We've seen a significant jump for Democrat registration. We need to increase that trend and solidify, and hopefully at sometime in 2010, if not 2011, surpass Republicans in making this state a Democratic state, as it was historically," he said.
